


brew

by natsume (akc)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Blind Date, First Dates, M/M, mild levels of awkwarness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24827344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akc/pseuds/natsume
Summary: “Are you my date?” Sylvain asks, eyebrows shooting up into the stratosphere. “Did Ingrid and Dimitri… set us up on a date together?”
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	brew

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovebrd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovebrd/gifts).



> prompt was "sylvashe blind date" so here we are. there are lots of chair antics

“Listen to our proposition,” Ingrid says. She’s seated across a square table from Ashe, and Dimitri is sitting right next to her, hands folded together neatly on top of the hardwood. Their backs are completely straight, and it’s a little unnerving, Ashe thinks. At least—it’s unnerving to him. It’s probably the same as usual for the two of them.

Ashe sighs and nods. “I’m listening.” 

“The two of us were thinking about setting you up on a blind date.” Ingrid is moving her hands around a lot while explaining this. “Not—it’s not because we think you’re incapable. We have your best interests in mind.”   
  
This is… strange. It’s a strange proposition in itself, but even stranger when considering the fact that the idea is coming from Dimitri and Ingrid of all people. If, say, Sylvain were the one explaining this idea to him, Ashe wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

“Best interests,” Ashe repeats. “And these are my best interests because..?”

“Oh, well.” Dimitri is speaking now; he has immediately cut Ingrid off from being able to say her piece. Ashe wonders if that bothers her. From the look on her face, the answer seems to be leaning towards  _ yes.  _ “We just… you know. We think that you need to get out a little bit more.”

_ That’s funny coming from you,  _ Ashe wants to say, but he doesn’t because it’s rude and would derail the conversation and cause problems. He sighs again instead, leaning back in his chair, unsure whether or not he should accept this proposal. It’s not… really his  _ thing  _ to do activities like these, especially when he barely has any control over the situation. What if the date is awkward? What if he immediately hates the person he meets? Is it even possible for this to go smoothly?   
  
“Ashe?” Dimitri says, voice just teetering on sounding worried. Ashe blinks a couple of times; he hadn’t realized that he was staring off into space, clearly thinking way too hard about this already. “Are you all right?”   
  
“I’m, um—fine, yeah. I’m fine. I just don’t think that this is a great idea, truthfully,” he admits, mumbling the last part, embarrassed by how readily he’s giving up.

“Please.” Ingrid has her elbows on the table and is slouching forward, as if trying to interrogate someone. “For us? We really think that this will go well—we haven’t asked the other person if they’d like to do it yet, but we think that this will be a good thing… for the both of you.”   
  
“So you already have my date in mind? Is that what you mean?”   
  
“Yes, we do,” Dimitri says, wringing his hands together. 

For some reason, that makes Ashe feel a little bit better, more reassured. He knows, realistically, that Ingrid and Dimitri don’t want to do anything to hurt him, and for that reason are probably being very precarious about who they select to go on this date. 

He sighs. It’s so hard to say no to their faces when they both have such horrible puppy dog eyes—especially Dimitri. Looking at his face and trying to deadpan is next to impossible. 

“Fine,” Ashe says after a short moment of contemplation. “I’ll do it.”

Ingrid and Dimitri’s faces immediately light up, smiles etching themselves into their expressions at lightning speed. Seeing them react like that is enough for Ashe to know that he’s definitely in good hands, even if he’s still a little bit reluctant to go along with this. It’s fine, though—if he doesn’t enjoy the date, he doesn’t have to see the person for the rest of his life. There’s no issue.

“Really?” Dimitri asks, still smiling. “You will?”

“I will.”   
  
“Ah, that makes me so happy to hear, Ashe, it really does.” Pause. “You will not regret this. And if you do—you are personally invited to be upset with both of us for as long as you would like.”   
  
“Er, thanks.” Ashe isn’t sure whether or not that will be necessary, considering that he’s hoping the date won’t go  _ abysmally  _ bad. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“We are going to talk to your date tomorrow,” Ingrid explains. “And then will get back to you. How does a date in two days sound? Dinner? Is that reasonable?”   
  
“Uh, yeah, sure, that’s reasonable.” Ashe doesn’t really care where or when the date happens so long as it isn’t overwhelmingly inconvenient. “Whatever works with you.”   
  
“You won’t regret this,” Dimitri says, standing up from his seat alongside Ingrid. “Hopefully not, at least.”

Ashe hopes not too.

* * *

“We’ve got something planned for you,” Ingrid says, standing in front of Sylvain like a teacher. He’s sitting down at a round table being hounded by both Ingrid as well as Dimitri, and it isn’t even noon yet. Sylvain figures that he must be in for a treat today.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” he asks, leaning back in his chair so far that it's only balancing on two legs. Sylvain has fallen off enough chairs from sitting this way to know that he should stop misbehaving—especially now that he’s well into his twenties—but he can’t help it, really.

“Fix your chair,” Ingrid chastises, and her stern expression is enough to make Sylvain drop all four legs of the chair against the ground. He shifts in his seat, crossing one leg over the other and staring up at both blonds. He feels like he’s being punished for eating snacks in class when he wasn’t supposed to. 

“It’s fixed,” he says. “Just for you.”   
  
“Thanks.” Ingrid’s face is terse. Man, does she ever relax? “Anyway, the plan—me and Dimitri’s plan—is to get you a date!”

Sylvain’s face almost instantly falls at the word  _ date  _ and he sighs, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. “Why, though?”

“Because you need to settle down, Sylvain. With someone that’s special to you. Someone who can give you what you want, you know?”

_ I don’t know what I want,  _ Sylvain thinks to himself. “That’s a nice thought, but I seriously don’t think it’s going to work out the way that you’re hoping.”

“There is no harm in trying,” Dimitri says, folding his hands together in front of himself. “And besides, we have already set you up with someone. For tomorrow night.”   
  
“ _ Tomorrow _ night?”

“I apologize for the late notice,” Dimitri mumbles. “It’s… simply how things worked out.”   
  
“You guys are ruthless,” Sylvain jokes, smiling as he speaks. 

Despite the difficulty of it all he appreciates his friends doing things like this—he knows that they’re only trying to make him happy, and for that, he doesn’t really mind indulging them every now and then. He’s not particularly sure how this  _ date  _ will work out, especially if it’s a blind one—truthfully, Sylvain hasn’t done many of those—but if Ingrid and Dimitri went to the trouble of setting it up in the first place, he at least wants to test the waters. 

And they’re right, in a way: Sylvain  _ does  _ need to settle down a little bit. He knows that he can’t keep acting like a twenty year old for the rest of his life. There comes a time and place where he has to get serious about dating, and the time and place is swiftly approaching.

Not only that, but he also needs to be kinder to himself. Simpler. He needs to learn and grow rather than sit in the mud of the past.

“We are not ruthless,” Ingrid says, huffing a little bit as she crosses her arms over her chest, trying and failing to be authoritative. 

“Whatever you say.” Sylvain laughs. “And anyway—fine, okay. I’ll go on the blind date. But if it goes wrong, I have full rights to tell the both of you that  _ I told you so. _ ”   
  
Dimitri gives a little nod. “Those terms are acceptable.”

“I would chew you out even if you didn’t agree to my ‘terms,’ don’t worry.” 

“Ah, well.” Dimitri looks as though he has no idea what to say. He’s always been a little bit awkward when it comes to banter, hasn’t he? “Regardless. If it goes wrong, you fully deserve to be upset with us.”   
  
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sylvain says, standing up. “Now can I go get my dinner? Please?”

* * *

On the day of his date, Sylvain wears grey.

All things considered, he thinks that this is a pretty good color on him. As much as it pains him that he isn’t wearing something brighter and more fun, he figures that it’s best to wear something a little more suitable if he’s going to take this seriously. 

Ingrid and Dimitri set everything up for the date to take place in a relatively small tavern. As Sylvain makes his way through to his reserved seat, he takes in the sights and smells around him: that familiar mothball scent, the group of people in the corner of the room laughing and elbowing one another, and the bartender towel-drying the same pint over and over again. It’s not the most refined place in the world for a date, sure—especially by Dimitri and Ingrid’s standards—but it sure is comfortable.

His date doesn’t seem to be here just yet, so Sylvain dillydallies around, sitting himself down at the table at a pace fit for a snail rather than a human being. He leans back in his seat far enough until it’s being balanced on two legs rather than four.  _ I can do this here,  _ he thinks to himself,  _ because Ingrid won’t scold me. _

Is Sylvain nervous? Not particularly. He’s been on enough dates to know how things work, and he’s been on enough dates to know how to act, too. Mostly. Kind of. He supposes that this time around there is a  _ slight _ amount of pressure put on him to make things go smoothly, but—that has to be a joint effort. Sylvain expects whoever his date is to behave accordingly too, because he does  _ not _ want to get in trouble with his horribly blond friends.

His date should be arriving soon.

After a short moment Sylvain drops his chair back to the ground because he is, in fact, an adult and should probably behave as such, even though he doesn’t particularly like to. It’s much more enjoyable to live the way that  _ he  _ wants to, not the way that  _ other  _ people want him to. There’s a point, tough, where one must grow up and move on.

Soon enough ten minutes have passed, and Sylvain starts to worry that he’s been stood up on a  _ blind date.  _ Or maybe this was Ingrid and Dimitri’s plan all along—maybe one of them is going to suddenly walk in and say,  _ Just kidding! I’m your date.  _ That would be funny, Sylvain thinks. Funny, but also kind of a nightmare. 

Just when he’s about to give up and leave, someone enters through the wide tavern doors. It’s a bit hard to see because there is a group of people in front of him, but—Sylvain has high hopes that it’s his date. He sits at the table, impatiently drumming his fingers against the cloth covered hardwood, until all at once there is a presence by his side. He must have zoned out for a little bit there.

Upon looking at the presence, Sylvain’s eyes immediately widen.   
  
“Ashe?” he asks, looking the slightly smaller man up and down a few times. He looks nice. His hair is done differently than normal, he notices. “What’re you doing here?”

“Oh, um.” Ashe touches the ends of his hair in what appears to be a sort of nervous habit. “I’m here… for a date. What are you doing here?”   
  
“That’s a funny coincidence. I’m also here for a date. It was set up by Dimitri and Ingrid. I feel a little ridiculous, but—”   
  
“Dimitri and Ingrid?” Ashe interrupts, tilting his head awkwardly. “That’s funny, because they also set me up on my date tonight too.”   
  
Silence. The gears in Sylvain’s head slowly start to turn. Is this…?

“Are you my date?” he asks, eyebrows shooting up into the stratosphere. “Did Ingrid and Dimitri… set  _ us  _ up on a date together?”

Ashe looks at him, and then he looks off to the side, and then he looks up at the beam on the ceiling and back down to Sylvain and then all at once he bursts into laughter, steadying himself against the table as he continues to laugh all the way until he’s seated across from Sylvain. “It seems so,” he finally says, sniffling. “Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I’m—” Sylvain laughs a little bit, too. “I’m fine with it if you’re fine with it.”

“Sure, yeah. I guess that we don’t have to introduce ourselves to each other if this is the case, though.”   
  
“That’s pretty convenient,” Sylvain says, nodding slightly. “Damn. I can’t believe you’re my date!”   
  
“It’s a funny coincidence,” Ashe hums. “What did they do to convince you to accept?”   
  
“They told me that I need to ‘settle down,’” Sylvain says, using air quotes. “Something along those lines. I guess they’re kind of right, considering I’m well into my twenties at this point but…it’s also something I’ve been avoiding.”

“Hmm… I see. I suppose it’s up to you how you want to live your life, though, Sylvain.”   
  
“Aw, you’re being so polite about it. Thanks Ashe. But seriously… I’ve been thinking about it and they’re kind of right. I  _ want  _ to be able to settle down with someone, y’know. It’s just…”   
  
“Different,” Ashe supplies. “And difficult too, maybe.”   
  
“Yeah, something like that.” Sylvain sighs. “Well? How did they convince you?”   
  
“They said about just the opposite to me. They told me that I need to get out more.”   
  
Sylvain’s face warps itself into a frown, and then it warps into an amused sort of grin. “That’s pretty harsh,” he says.

“Not really. I—I mean, I can understand where they’re coming from, because it’s true, I do need to put myself out there. I suppose I’ve just been having a difficult time finding the time to do that… and the willpower.”

“Touche. Honestly, I know that Ingrid and Dimitri both mean well, and that they wouldn’t set me up for a blind date as punishment or anything like that—I know that they care—but there’s a certain amount of hilarity in my close friends getting semi-involved in my romantic life.”   
  
“Aha… I know what you mean. I’m not as close to Ingrid or Dimitri as you are, but… yeah. It’s still kind of funny. But I figured that it would be better for me to trust their instincts than to be suspicious of them.”

“I feel the same way,” Sylvain says, folding his hands together on top of the table and leaning in slightly. “Anyway, I… hate to change the subject, but I’m seriously hungry. Can we order something? Get this show on the road and all that?”   
  
“Oh—right!” Ashe laughs. “I had nearly forgotten where we were. Sure, let’s do that.”

* * *

As far as blind dates go, Sylvain feels like this one went pretty well. 

Though technically it isn’t really a traditional blind date. That’s fine, though; Sylvain is pleased with how the night went, despite the initial awkwardness of it all. If anything, the awkwardness somehow added to the experience.

They’re exiting the tavern, standing next to one another by a street corner, and Sylvain has his hands on his hips. “Thanks for a nice night,” he says to Ashe, tossing in a smile at the end.

“The same goes to you. I had an enjoyable time. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I… I’m pretty happy.”   
  
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy too. The food was good, the company was good… what more can I ask for?”   
  
Ashe laughs, and Sylvain doesn’t miss the way that he sounds a little bit nervous. He glances up at the sky—the moon is crawling across it, making its way to the top—and then back down. “Is it okay if I see you again?” Sylvain asks after a moment. “Like this, I mean. On a date.”

“Oh!” Ashe sounds wonderfully surprised, and it’s extremely endearing. “Sure. I would—that would be great. I’d like that. I wasn’t sure how you felt so I didn’t say anything, but… that makes me glad to hear.”   
  
“Good. Okay, then. How about tomorrow? Our first non-blind date. That way it’s more real and official, you know?”   
  
“I—yeah, okay. Tomorrow works great.” Ashe pauses for a moment and purses his lips. It looks like there’s something that he wants to say, but doesn’t know if he should. Sylvain is about to open his big mouth to encourage Ashe, but is cut short by the smaller man standing up on his tiptoes, pressing a gentle kiss to Sylvain’s cheek.

“Aw,” Sylvain says, against his better judgment. 

“That’s to—to tide you over until tomorrow,” Ashe says, and Sylvain can tell how he’s trying to put up a cool persona right now. So cute. “I’ll see you then.”   
  
“Right.” Sylvain smiles. “I’ll see you then.” 


End file.
